Your website is built in the app, from sections that read what the app already knows: your services and prices, your team, your hours and address, your products and your events. Change a price in Services and the site follows; there is nothing to copy. Open it from Website & App.
The website desk
Website & App opens on the desk: the site's state (Published, Under construction, Private or Not published), its address, and tabs for Analytics, Search, AI Answers, Blog, Menus, Code, Domain, Redirects, Import, Policies and People. Edit the site opens the editor.
Building the site
- Choose Edit the site.
- Pick a style to start from (Classic, Editorial, Soft, Bold, Minimal, Luxe, Fresh, Night). A style changes fonts, corners, buttons and colors in one tap; your words and pictures stay.
- The list on the left is the page, section by section. Pick a section to change its words, pictures and settings. Move sections up and down, duplicate one, or remove it. A section's own items (its columns, rows, questions, slides or plans) are listed under it and in its settings; pick one to edit it on its own, and the arrow at the top goes back to the section.
- Add a section offers what you can add. From your app: a services menu, the team, hours and location, upcoming events, blog posts, your Google rating, products, a sign-up box and a contact form. Layout and Content: a hero banner, a slideshow, a picture with text, columns, before and after pairs, numbers, plans and packages, testimonials, a gallery, a countdown and more.
- Check it at Computer, Tablet and Phone size, or in Full screen. The preview draws the page at that device's width and shrinks it to fit, so Computer shows the page as a computer does even beside the two lists. On a phone the editor starts on Phone.
- Choose Save the draft as you go.
Tell the assistant a little about the business, and it writes the headline and the About text for you to edit (Have it written).
Pages, header and footer
Add pages of your own under Your pages. The app also makes some for you: the booking page, events, the join page and answers. The header and footer are their own groups in the list; the logo is the wide one from Settings, under Look. The main menu lists each home page section that has a menu word, then each page set to show in the menu; edit extra links under Menus.
Publishing
- Publish puts the site live. After that, Save changes updates the live site.
- Before it goes live, the site can show an under construction page where visitors leave a name and email to be told when it opens, or be kept private with a Password to see the site early.
- Take the site down stops showing it to visitors; everything stays, ready to publish again.
Your own domain
The site always answers at the app's own address. To use your own: buy the domain from any registrar, open the Domain tab, type it, choose Save, and add the two records it shows at your registrar. A change can take from a few minutes to a day to be seen everywhere; the tab says when it is Connected.
Search engines and AI assistants
- Search shows each page as a search engine and a shared link show it. Write a title and a description, and describe each picture as you would on the phone. A business set as A company people do not visit in person (in the editor, under Search engines and AI) is not asked for an address, hours, a services menu, a Google listing or online booking.
- The site already tells search engines and AI assistants your name, address, hours, services, prices and how to book, in the form they read, with a sitemap kept current on every save.
- AI Answers is what an AI assistant should quote: what you are, where, who you are for and what you are known for, and the questions you hear every week with complete answers.
The blog, redirects, policies and code
- Blog: write posts with pictures; each has its own page and shows on the blog, in its feed, and in a Blog posts section.
- Redirects: send old addresses from a previous site to where they are now, so old links and search rankings carry over. Shopify's usual addresses are already handled.
- Policies: privacy, terms, returns and shipping, each from a plain starting outline to make true for your business; each gets its own page and a link in the footer. Switch on the cookie notice if code you add sets cookies.
- Code: add code to the top or bottom of every page (a Meta pixel, Google Analytics, a chat window), shown only at your own domain. Every save keeps the version it replaced.
Who works on the site
Owners, admins and managers change and publish the site. A designer's login changes the site, the studio, mailers, social posts and email layouts, and nothing else; publishing stays with you. People lists them, with Invite a designer.
Your app
Under Your App, give the app its icon and name (twelve letters at most), choose what it opens on, and switch on Offer the app on the website. Clients scan its code, or tap "Add to home screen" on a phone, and book and see their visits from it. Publish the website first: the app installs from it.
Best practices
- Start from a style that suits your business, and change words and pictures before colors.
- Use the sections From your app. They never go out of date.
- Write the AI Answers and a few questions and answers. That is what assistants and Google lift word for word.
- Connect your own domain before you print it on anything.
- Moving from another site? Bring it over under Import (see Bringing your existing website over): its pages, look and a redirect for every old address. Fill in any other Redirects the day you switch, so nothing that linked to you breaks.
- Check every page at Phone size. Most visitors will see it there.